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Oh How I Love You Caffeine, But Should I Trust You?

While we've discussed how much us techies love, crave, and abuse caffeine what are some questions that may come up on the most abused substance in the world? What side-effects are there? How much caffeine is too much caffeine? Are there any benefits?

Generally, you'd want to stay with around 1-2mg's of caffeine per pound of body weight. Which, for the most part, a 1-2oz shot of espresso or a cup of coffee all come out to approximately 100mg's of Caffeine. A lot of this is based on tolerance but the most common side-effects from caffeine "intoxication" can cause things like insomnia, a rapid heartbeat, irritability, muscle twitching and increased urination. Speaking of which, much like after drinking alcohol you must make sure you keep yourself hydrated. You know where this is going, if you plan on mixing caffeine with alcohol via the common Jager Bombs, Cherry Bombs, Vegas Bombs, Bombs, you should be warned that this can lead to bad decision making.

Aside from the obvious benefit of caffeine providing that extra "pep" in the day, it has been shown in many studies that Coffee (the most common source of Caffeine) is extremely high in antioxidants. It has also been found to be a cancer fighter including reducing your chances for cirrhosis and liver cancer which is the #3 cancer killer. The ingredients found in Coffee most definitely synergistically work together and would be the best choice by far if compared to your endless choices of energy drinks. Most energy drinks also contain the same array of ingredients, B-Vitamins, Taurine, Caffeine, Ginseng, and Guarana (pre-cursor to Caffeine). If you are still determined to get an energy drink shoot for one of the coffee drinks unless coffee just isn’t your thing.

Always keep in mind that if you feel like you NEED Caffeine to keep you going day-to-day it's likely that the Caffeine from the day before kept you from sleeping as well as you could have. I always recommend a Caffeine detox to keep your tolerance down and to avoid getting dependent on it but man those headaches make me want some coffee!

-Thomas

P.S. If some of this didn't make sense, I may have rambled on a bit and I confess.. I drank a Venti Starbucks Double Shot on Ice with an extra shot of espressob(6 shots total of espresso)...